Mary, Queen of Scots by Rosalind K. Marshall

'In My End is My Beginning'

This magnificently produced book has been specially written and
published to accompany the exhibition, Mary, Queen of
Scots: 'In My End is My Beginning', taking place at the
National Museum of Scotland in
Edinburgh from 28 June to 17
November 2013.

Rosalind K. Marshall is a renowned author of Scottish historical
works. While her books have ranged widely in terms of periods covered, she has
made a particular speciality of
Mary Queen of Scots, with
previous books about one of the best known and most controversial of Scottish
monarchs, as well as about her mother,
Mary of Guise, her
adversary, John Knox, and her
female friends, family, servants and enemies. It was therefore perhaps natural
that when the National Museums of Scotland came to commission a book to
accompany their exhibition, they should ask Rosalind K. Marshall to write
it.

The result is a triumph. Just over half the book comprises a
beautifully illustrated biography of
Mary Queen of Scots.
There are more in-depth biographies available in bookshops, but the account you
find here is extremely well written and gives the reader all they really need
to know. The use of outstanding and highly relevant illustrations, all of
pictures or objects featured in the exhibition, really helps give life to
Mary's story, and to the objects you can see in the exhibition itself. The
second part of the book is a detailed catalogue of the 211 objects brought
together for the exhibition, again extensively illustrated. These comprise
objects already in the NMS's own collections, plus others loaned from public
collections in Scotland, England and France, and from private collections. The
result is an exhibition which has perhaps never been equalled before, and
perhaps never will be again. The result is a book whose value and interest will
extend beyond the life of the exhibition it accompanies.

The book's (and exhibition's) subtitle, "In My End is My Beginning",
comes from a phrase Mary embroidered while in captivity: and which is also
associated with Item 1 in the exhibition, a famous portrait of
Mary Queen of Scots
showing her shortly before her execution. The full portrait is shown within the
book, while a crop of it serves as the cover.